irish44j
Well-known member
The red receiver there looks so good, I almost wish the plate didn't cover it lol. I did play around with putting the plate off to one side, but that just looked stupid and upset my love of symmetry
Pitchblack Rally Recce Raider Build
- Thread starter irish44j
- Start date
The red receiver there looks so good, I almost wish the plate didn't cover it lol. I did play around with putting the plate off to one side, but that just looked stupid and upset my love of symmetry
irish44j
Well-known member
The winch arrived this morning, but I was busy building some garage shelving so didn't get to it until later today. I did take a few minutes and install some new front swaybar bushings. The ones on the truck were probably original and were so compressed they were hardly even touching the bar itself and you could easily jiggle it loosely by hand. So, this truck has enough "sway" without the busings not actually holding the bar. So picked up some Siberians, since guys on the Montero groups seem to like them (and they're pretty cheap).
In any case, they fit perfectly, that's one less thing....
Ok, back to the winch mount. So the winch arrived - as noted, it's a #5000 harbor frieght job, which should be sufficient for my infrequent needs and more than sufficient if I use a snatch block.
I'll give it to Harbor Freight...with a super coupon this was about $150 and it seems well-built with all needed accessories. Much better accessories than the 1500lb HF winch I got a decade ago that really had some cheap stuff with it.
So, I knew going in that it wasn't going to be a perfect fit for the hitch platform, since the platform is made for the larger-body winches. To mount the winch I had to drill a couple new holes (no big deal), but the fairlead on this one is smaller than the fullsize winches, and the platform bracket is made for the larger one. So I had to do a little bit of modification with some steel bar to make new (narrower) mount points.
With that done, I mounted the winch with no issues. Because I need this to be a fully-portable setup with everything attached, I bolted the solenoid off to the side (one advantage of the platform being "too big" for the smaller winch is that I have some space left over), and bolted the wired remote hookup off to the side of the fairlead. I did some wiring modifications and eliminated the in-car winch control (though I left ring terminals on it to carry as a spare in case the remote dies for some reason). I need to clean up the wiring a bit more, but here it is as of now
So, went ahead and fitted it to the truck and just did a quick hookup to the battery (I'm going to make some quick connect wiring once the wire gets here).
And of course, had to test it. So I rolled the Raider down the (sloped) driveway. Didn't have much of a good hookup point up above, so I just chocked all the wheels of the rally car in the garage and hooked up to its rear tow point.
In any case, it pulled up the driveway slope with minimal effort, not surprisingly. I just wanted to make sure everything was working.
In any case, they fit perfectly, that's one less thing....
Ok, back to the winch mount. So the winch arrived - as noted, it's a #5000 harbor frieght job, which should be sufficient for my infrequent needs and more than sufficient if I use a snatch block.
I'll give it to Harbor Freight...with a super coupon this was about $150 and it seems well-built with all needed accessories. Much better accessories than the 1500lb HF winch I got a decade ago that really had some cheap stuff with it.
So, I knew going in that it wasn't going to be a perfect fit for the hitch platform, since the platform is made for the larger-body winches. To mount the winch I had to drill a couple new holes (no big deal), but the fairlead on this one is smaller than the fullsize winches, and the platform bracket is made for the larger one. So I had to do a little bit of modification with some steel bar to make new (narrower) mount points.
With that done, I mounted the winch with no issues. Because I need this to be a fully-portable setup with everything attached, I bolted the solenoid off to the side (one advantage of the platform being "too big" for the smaller winch is that I have some space left over), and bolted the wired remote hookup off to the side of the fairlead. I did some wiring modifications and eliminated the in-car winch control (though I left ring terminals on it to carry as a spare in case the remote dies for some reason). I need to clean up the wiring a bit more, but here it is as of now
So, went ahead and fitted it to the truck and just did a quick hookup to the battery (I'm going to make some quick connect wiring once the wire gets here).
And of course, had to test it. So I rolled the Raider down the (sloped) driveway. Didn't have much of a good hookup point up above, so I just chocked all the wheels of the rally car in the garage and hooked up to its rear tow point.
In any case, it pulled up the driveway slope with minimal effort, not surprisingly. I just wanted to make sure everything was working.
irish44j
Well-known member
First, I didn't really like where I originally put the GMRS radio. Mounted down to the side made it hard to reach and the speaker was facing away from me. So I moved it up on top of the dash right under the grab bar. Because of the "lip" of the dash front I had to raise it up a bit to sit flush, so i cut out a couple small squares of HDPE sheet from some scrap I had sitting around and built a taller "base". Then drilled a couple holes in the dash (which I figured was plastic, but it's actually steel sheet...) and attached the radio base. For wiring I put another hole right behind it in the upward dash section, and put in a grommet.
Anyhow, I like this spot much better.
Second project was finalizing something I've been testing for the last week or so. Even with good-condition seals, the front quarter windows tend to make a whistling/wind noise at speeds over about 50mph, no matter how tight I adjust them. I definitely don't want to drop the cash to buy new ones, but the noise is super-annoying if it's super hot and I want to run A/C with the windows closed (as it seems to be every day this year....)
So what I did was take some old possible garage door rubber seals and cut them lengthwise so they're about 2" wide from the beveled edge. Then I cut them the length I wanted and rounded/tapered the ends.
To attach I used Gorilla Tape along the inner flat surface of the A-pillar outside the door seal. BTW....this stuff is sticky AF - way more adhesion than the 3M heavy-duty stuff
And attached the pieces there
So with the door closed it basically locks the pieces in place even better, and unless you are actually looking, they aren't very noticeable from the outside (nor from inside)
Anyhow, this totally elminates the quarter window wind noise - though the mirrors still make a good bit of noise, but at least no whistle....
Anyhow, I like this spot much better.
Second project was finalizing something I've been testing for the last week or so. Even with good-condition seals, the front quarter windows tend to make a whistling/wind noise at speeds over about 50mph, no matter how tight I adjust them. I definitely don't want to drop the cash to buy new ones, but the noise is super-annoying if it's super hot and I want to run A/C with the windows closed (as it seems to be every day this year....)
So what I did was take some old possible garage door rubber seals and cut them lengthwise so they're about 2" wide from the beveled edge. Then I cut them the length I wanted and rounded/tapered the ends.
To attach I used Gorilla Tape along the inner flat surface of the A-pillar outside the door seal. BTW....this stuff is sticky AF - way more adhesion than the 3M heavy-duty stuff
And attached the pieces there
So with the door closed it basically locks the pieces in place even better, and unless you are actually looking, they aren't very noticeable from the outside (nor from inside)
Anyhow, this totally elminates the quarter window wind noise - though the mirrors still make a good bit of noise, but at least no whistle....
irish44j
Well-known member
A little Sunday project regarding comms/antennas. So, a few things: First, as noted before I have a GMRS radio (just a low-power 5-watt set for local comms) and also have a CB (not currently installed, but will get around to it eventually) since some people in some areas use that (and we have CB in the Sequioa support rig, so having comms during rally travel will be nice). I also have a personal dislike of antennas in front of me when driving. Don't ask me why, I just don't. My old Porsche now has a roof radio antenna so i could get rid of the fender-mounted one....and the Raider's fender mounted antenna is going away.
So, with three antennas, I needed to figure out where to put them, ruling out anything forward of the windshield. Options are side-body mounts (not great for narrow trails with branches), roof mount magnetic (means a bunch of wires going through window/door seals), roof mount drill mount (means drilling holes in the roof and trying to get them under a 30-year-old headliner without ruining it). All of those seem E36 M3ty. So I decided to build an antenna platform on the tailgate above the spare tire. One of the keys was to keep the antennas far enough from each other to avoid incidental contact. Not too concerned with interference since I'm running all lowish-power stuff and the CB and GMRS would never be on at the same time anyhow. I'll be using no-ground plane (NGP) antenna for CB, but the CB antenna will be able to use the roof as a groundplane to some degree since it will stick up. But also wanted to keep them low enough to not get broken off and so they will still fit in my garage if needed.
Anyhow, let's get some steel out. Decided to use some C-channel and flat plate and just fab up a post and crossbar that mount to the spare tire mount. It's already spaced out from stock to accommodate the bigger tire, so the bar just replaces the spacers on one side.
These are just huge nuts used for locating spacers (not actually threading into them). Didn't even prep, so ************ tack welds on zinc bolts. Just needed them to stay in place lol.
Then a perpendicular T-bar. It's 24" long but offset to the driver's side so it sits evenly over the spare.
Attachment point
Post clearance with the spare is a couple mm...so perfect.
Had to make a small notch in case the rear wiper goes too far, to avoid contact.
So, there it is.....I stopped the wiper at vertical just to check for clearance, in case you're wondering.
So, I'll get around to putting some antennas on it, at about 10" spacing, and see how it works in terms of signal, interference, etc. More on that once I get everything I need. Also need to figure out how I want to run the wires - they'll go down the back of the post, but not sure if I'm going to bring them through the door or go into the rear quater over the taillight. We'll see....
In other random stuff.....got a snatch block, which is probably overkill capacity-wise, but whatever.
Also picked up some 1/4" synthetic winch rope (rated to 7000# so should be fine) to replace the steel cable. First, because I dislike steel cable breaking E36 M3 if it ever snaps (rope won't cut anyone's arms off, lol...). And second it's probably a good 5lbs lighter, which is nice for something I will be moving around. Anyhow, we'll see how it is - just some random Amazon brand that a couple guys I know who are hardcore wheelers said is good. I'll probably throw the steel cable in the gear box as well, just in case the rope isn't up to whatever task.....TBD
Had to modify one end to attach it, since the winch attachment type is a pressure screw rather than a bold...but wasn't much of a hassle.
So, with three antennas, I needed to figure out where to put them, ruling out anything forward of the windshield. Options are side-body mounts (not great for narrow trails with branches), roof mount magnetic (means a bunch of wires going through window/door seals), roof mount drill mount (means drilling holes in the roof and trying to get them under a 30-year-old headliner without ruining it). All of those seem E36 M3ty. So I decided to build an antenna platform on the tailgate above the spare tire. One of the keys was to keep the antennas far enough from each other to avoid incidental contact. Not too concerned with interference since I'm running all lowish-power stuff and the CB and GMRS would never be on at the same time anyhow. I'll be using no-ground plane (NGP) antenna for CB, but the CB antenna will be able to use the roof as a groundplane to some degree since it will stick up. But also wanted to keep them low enough to not get broken off and so they will still fit in my garage if needed.
Anyhow, let's get some steel out. Decided to use some C-channel and flat plate and just fab up a post and crossbar that mount to the spare tire mount. It's already spaced out from stock to accommodate the bigger tire, so the bar just replaces the spacers on one side.
These are just huge nuts used for locating spacers (not actually threading into them). Didn't even prep, so ************ tack welds on zinc bolts. Just needed them to stay in place lol.
Then a perpendicular T-bar. It's 24" long but offset to the driver's side so it sits evenly over the spare.
Attachment point
Post clearance with the spare is a couple mm...so perfect.
Had to make a small notch in case the rear wiper goes too far, to avoid contact.
So, there it is.....I stopped the wiper at vertical just to check for clearance, in case you're wondering.
So, I'll get around to putting some antennas on it, at about 10" spacing, and see how it works in terms of signal, interference, etc. More on that once I get everything I need. Also need to figure out how I want to run the wires - they'll go down the back of the post, but not sure if I'm going to bring them through the door or go into the rear quater over the taillight. We'll see....
In other random stuff.....got a snatch block, which is probably overkill capacity-wise, but whatever.
Also picked up some 1/4" synthetic winch rope (rated to 7000# so should be fine) to replace the steel cable. First, because I dislike steel cable breaking E36 M3 if it ever snaps (rope won't cut anyone's arms off, lol...). And second it's probably a good 5lbs lighter, which is nice for something I will be moving around. Anyhow, we'll see how it is - just some random Amazon brand that a couple guys I know who are hardcore wheelers said is good. I'll probably throw the steel cable in the gear box as well, just in case the rope isn't up to whatever task.....TBD
Had to modify one end to attach it, since the winch attachment type is a pressure screw rather than a bold...but wasn't much of a hassle.
Myth Busters did a whole episode on the cable cutting off limbs thing.....it was busted (great episode btw, if I remember correctly there was a pig carcass involved) Cable doesn’t load much dynamically, it has very little stretch. Some, but not enough to remove a limb. Rope on the other hand is a different story. Still not going to remove a limb, but more dangerous I think in certain situations. Even a static rope will store some dynamic energy under load. If your snatch block anchor breaks under load, ******** will fly a little bit. I’d be using rope for weight savings and that’s about it. I like cable for longevity. Rope that is exposed to the elements won’t stay to spec very long. Even stored clean and dry it degrades over time. Cable on the other hand takes decades to wear out if cared for properly. Rope is certainly easier to work with and easier on the hands though!
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irish44j
Well-known member
Yeah I was being a little over dramatic there lol. But I have certainly seen weekly attached toe points break when being winched and fly back toward the winching vehicle!
Since this winch is going to live its life in my garage and not on a vehicle I figure the rope will hold up well since it won't be exposed to UV. I just have to be careful when winching onto the trailer not to let it rub on the tail of the trailer.
coastalcop
Active member
here are some fun and interesting test on broken winch cables. NOT scientific , but entertaining and enlightening
If I’m seeing things correctly, they have a (very long) big purple strap between the dozer and the cable, then the other end of the cable is where they insert the strap they intend to break, which is attached to the 20 ton tow strap around the tree. The purple strap between the dozer and the cable is adding to the dynamic load on the system in a way you would not have on a winch. They should have attached the cable directly to the dozer. The results would have been much less impressive. The big purple strap is acting like a rubber band. Fun video though.
irish44j
Well-known member
Just some little stuff today. With the tropical storm/hurricane heading this way I moved stuff around so i could stuff a couple cars in the garage (the Raider and the other cars with full coverage get to stay outside)....just in case any tree branches decide to come down from the 100 foot oak near my driveway. It's nice that I put my big workbenches on casters so I can roll them out of the way, and that my cars are mostly pretty small lol
Amazon delivered a few other random stuff today - a tree-saver strap (no photo, it's a strap...) and a cheap neoprene cover for the winch, which actually fits perfectly.
I also got a couple heavy connectors so i can start doing the wiring setup on the vehicles and winch. So did the winch end.
Of course, however, I don't have a heavy-duty crimper for these big wire fittings (and not dropping $$ for one since i'd rarely use it), so I had to improvise with a piece of 1/4" steel plate (using the edge) and a bif F-ing hammer....which seemed to work fine since I didn't smash my hand, and the 4ga cables are now securely crimped in place.
Oh.....and so. The passenger side mirror has always rattled in the wind. It's not the base, it's the glass part not fitting snugly in the plastic case. I figured I'd shim it with a little thin piece of plastic, but I guess I forced it a bit too hard....
dammit. Luckily I still have the mirrors on the other set of doors I saved from the Blue Raider, so just went and took one of those to replace it. This one doesn't rattle.
Also got some of my antenna stuff in, but probably won't "write it up" until I have everything and it's installed.
Amazon delivered a few other random stuff today - a tree-saver strap (no photo, it's a strap...) and a cheap neoprene cover for the winch, which actually fits perfectly.
I also got a couple heavy connectors so i can start doing the wiring setup on the vehicles and winch. So did the winch end.
Of course, however, I don't have a heavy-duty crimper for these big wire fittings (and not dropping $$ for one since i'd rarely use it), so I had to improvise with a piece of 1/4" steel plate (using the edge) and a bif F-ing hammer....which seemed to work fine since I didn't smash my hand, and the 4ga cables are now securely crimped in place.
Oh.....and so. The passenger side mirror has always rattled in the wind. It's not the base, it's the glass part not fitting snugly in the plastic case. I figured I'd shim it with a little thin piece of plastic, but I guess I forced it a bit too hard....
dammit. Luckily I still have the mirrors on the other set of doors I saved from the Blue Raider, so just went and took one of those to replace it. This one doesn't rattle.
Also got some of my antenna stuff in, but probably won't "write it up" until I have everything and it's installed.
irish44j
Well-known member
So, speaking of wiring (was I speaking of wiring? whatever...) ....I picked up a 30-foot 1-gauge "jumper" set online for like $35 on some kind of random clearance thing. Wasn't sure what exactly it was, but that price was cheap for large wires so what the hell. It got here today, and indeed it's 30 total feet. About 25 feet is a long section with a heavy-duty plug on one end and jumper clamps on the other. The other 5-6 feet has another heavy plug on one end and terminal eyes on the other. The wires seem to be good quality.
Even came with a nice little bag
So, this is pretty much perfect. The long section will stay with the trailer, basically to plug into the winch when it's on the trailer and it'll be long enough to reach the Sequoia's battery terminals.
The short section is for the hardwire to the Raider. So got it wired up to the battery terminals (when I get a new battery I'll get a dual-terminal with side mounts to make this cleaner...)
Then ran the wires past the air filter box and through the hole in the front body that goes to behind the grille. About a year ago I ordered some split-wire loom to do wiring, but it turned out to be about 5x as big as I thought so I stashed it away. As luck would have it, it's a perfect size for these twin 1-gauge wires, and will do well to protect them from rubbing on anything or chafing.
through the front valence
perfect length to hookup to the winch
And conveniently tucks away under the bumper lip, held in place with a ziptie.
So, that worked out pretty well. I'm considering whether to keep this direct-wired, since I've read several places NOT to use the HF circuit breaker the winch comes with. Doesn't seem like there's much chance of the wires shorting, considering they have very thick insulation PLUS the protective loom. Thoughts?
Even came with a nice little bag
So, this is pretty much perfect. The long section will stay with the trailer, basically to plug into the winch when it's on the trailer and it'll be long enough to reach the Sequoia's battery terminals.
The short section is for the hardwire to the Raider. So got it wired up to the battery terminals (when I get a new battery I'll get a dual-terminal with side mounts to make this cleaner...)
Then ran the wires past the air filter box and through the hole in the front body that goes to behind the grille. About a year ago I ordered some split-wire loom to do wiring, but it turned out to be about 5x as big as I thought so I stashed it away. As luck would have it, it's a perfect size for these twin 1-gauge wires, and will do well to protect them from rubbing on anything or chafing.
through the front valence
perfect length to hookup to the winch
And conveniently tucks away under the bumper lip, held in place with a ziptie.
So, that worked out pretty well. I'm considering whether to keep this direct-wired, since I've read several places NOT to use the HF circuit breaker the winch comes with. Doesn't seem like there's much chance of the wires shorting, considering they have very thick insulation PLUS the protective loom. Thoughts?
irish44j
Well-known member
Once i get a battery with side terminals, I'll use the quick-connects that the cables came with (which are pretty nice). For the time being, I'm just not gonna worry about it. I was very careful to route these in a way where they don't touch much (and nothing sharp). between that and the protection loom, if I do something that manages to short this wire, there's already other stuff gone wrong lol....